I spent two hours and walked four miles this morning getting a worthless piece of paper. The time was not all wasted. I enjoyed the walk, my last for the next few weeks.
Bumf is a British expression for useless paperwork.
This particular specimen, an outward clearance, is in no way a result of U.S. bureaucracy, which does not require outward clearance of U.S. owned yachts. An increasing number of other countries are requiring such clearance anyway. This is foreign bumf.
I also sent an email to a Samoan government agency advising them of my projected arrival about July 21. Or I think I did.
Sometimes I am asked what changes I have noticed in the forty years I have been sailing the world.
The first is anecdotal, but I am with those who believe the climate is changing, that traditional weather patterns and pilot charts are less reliable, and that events that were viewed as aberrant have become much more common.
The change that unquestionably can be quantified is that there are a lot more rules and regulations, all without any redeeming value. I like to avoid hassles, so I do my best to comply with them. But they are abhorrent.
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GANNET is for me a new song. We are about to sing verse two.
The rhumb line distance from Honolulu to Apia is 2261 nautical miles, not much more than from San Diego to Hilo. However this passage, crossing the Equator and the doldrums, is more difficult to predict.
My inclination is to keep east of the rhumb line until I reach the doldrums in order to have a better wind angle in the southeast trades; but the weather map last night showed east wind, both north and south of the Equator, and therefore no reason not to sail the direct course.
I will still probably try to keep east, but will sail whatever angle drives GANNET best.
My estimate is that the passage will take three weeks, but that could be significantly off, fast or slow.
The Yellowbrick is again active.
The tracking page is: http://my.yb.tl/gannet I expect to be underway by 10 a.m. tomorrow, so you should see movement by 0000 UCT Wednesday.
I wish you joy.
